


Sunday Game Sessions

by jccwrites



Category: jccwrites
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:09:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 23
Words: 16,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24127939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jccwrites/pseuds/jccwrites
Summary: Sunday mornings mean getting together to play the original fantasy role-playing game for a group of university professors and their spouses.





	1. Chapter 1

Lady Grace holds up her hand over her shoulder, signaling Blue Company squad to alertness. The section of forest they had entered had become increasingly overgrown and strands of webbing hinted at nearby danger. Looking at her recruits, she mutters “Something is here” as a large, black mass drops onto her from the forest canopy and bites into her shoulder.

Following their training, Nalda speaks the incantation “טיל הקסם” and a bolt of energy shoots from her hand, eldritch power striking the giant spider hanging off of Lady Grace. Unfazed, it remains wrapped around her shoulder and back. Two other spiders had fallen to the ground, and now turn their attention to the group trailing behind their leader. Overgrown to the size of a medium dog, a menacing red hourglass shape adorns each spider’s abdomen. Green venom drips from their fangs as they quiver, preparing to bite.

Beler and Damin move forward, each squaring off against one of the spiders. In one smooth motion, Gevot draws and fires an arrow which sails past the creatures and disappears into the surrounding darkness of the forest.

Reaching their position in front of the monsters, Damin attempts to raise her shield as her opponent lunges. Evading the shield’s protection, the spider’s fangs sink deep into her forearm. With a cry, she is dragged to the ground.

“They’re so strong!” Beler marvels, swinging her enormous sword at her opponent. The spider tries to dodge, but one of its legs gets hacked off by the attack. Venom sprays from its fangs as it silently bites at the fighter in pain.

The cleric Damin, on the ground, swings at the spider that had attacked her. Miscalculating her attack, her mace glances off the spider, doing no damage.  
Finally getting her longsword free of its sheath, Lady Grace tries to dislodge the monstrosity on her back but ends up losing her grip on the sword and it falls into the underbrush.

“Finish off Beler’s injured opponent first” Lady Grace shouts, reminding them of the basic tactics training they have recently completed. Moving towards where her sword had fallen, the creature on her back bites into her once again, and she falls under the sustained attack.

Gevot drops his bow and draws his short sword as he joins Beler. He swings at her opponent and drives it backwards as it dodges his clumsy attack. He gives a curse he’d heard when they were recently in the city of Hope and shook his head to dislodge the sweat that now covers his brow.

Damin swings once more with her mace, attempting a side attack on the giant spider. It barely connects and seems to make the creature angry more than injure it. As the spider that finished Lady Grace moves toward Nalda, Yenser intercepts it and narrowly misses with a swing of her sword. Nalda draws her dagger, and backs away.

The fight drags on, with the Blue Company squad finally killing one of the three monsters. In spite of its death, the heroes fall one by one until silence descends once more on the forest and the giant spiders begin to feed.


	2. Chapter 2

  
“Wait, so we’re all dead and it’s over? Is this really how Creatures and Caverns is played?” Anne asked, glaring at Gary. Underneath her exaggerated outrage was a streak of genuine irritation.

  
“There’s a death’s door rule, that you can save people who have been knocked unconscious, but that doesn’t help us if we’re all down – right?” asked Frank, looking at Gary for confirmation. Everyone at the table tensed at the awkward situation.

  
“That’s a rule in Advanced C&C, not Basic. I told you we were playing old school rules, when a character is at zero hit points they’re dead. TECHNICALLY that would be the end, but don’t worry – we’re doing something a little differently. When they first published this back in the 70’s it was a pretty brutal system. When your character died you were just expected to roll up another one, which is pretty fast to do. It isn’t like now when you spend a few hours creating a character and there are a bunch of rules to make sure that no one ever dies.

  
“But what did we do wrong?” asked Anne, continuing her theatrical glower. “We rolled badly then we all die. That isn’t any fun!”

  
Gary held up her hand trying to calm her down “Like I said, it isn’t over. Old school role-playing came out of wargaming – where you reenact battles with little metal figures. Early on it was really brutal.”

  
“Also we were pretty unlucky,” Margaret suggested. “We got a lot of bad rolls. We managed to kill one of them, so maybe if we’d had a few better rolls we might have won.”

  
Gary smiled and admitted “It was pretty unlikely that you were going to win that fight. If we’d been starting the game at an earlier point you might have chosen to be more careful about wandering around in the forest, but with me starting you right as the battle broke out and Lady Grace getting bit immediately, there wasn’t a whole lot you could do.”

  
“Because you’re a mean Dragon Master or Cavern Lord or whatever you’re called. It’s your fault we’re dead!”

  
“Yes, I’m terrible,” admitted Gary insincerely. Trying to resume the game he began narrating again, “In a timeless, featureless void each of you suddenly springs into existence. You have an awareness that there are five of you, but have no understanding of who or what any of you are. You feel intuitively that you’ve just been created and that each of you is a blue ball of energy.”

  
“In the span of an instance – you KNOW that no time has passed – you’re suddenly filled with months’ worth of interactions with one another. It feels as though you’ve been floating in this void, getting to know one another intimately, talking about everything you can think of. However, you simultaneously realize that this is just knowledge that has appeared in your minds – you haven’t actually spent more than a few moments with one another. Each of you develops your own personality and gains an excellent understanding of the others. You know the group as well as family members would.”

  
“After another moment, you’re flooded with another set of experiences and, again, know immediately that they didn’t actually occur, memories were just created in your minds. The new knowledge informs you that you’re time sprites, divine creatures created by Chronos the god of time.”

  
“Time sprites?” asks Kate. “Like pixies?”

  
“More like angels” Gary clarified, continuing “but the lowest rung of divine beings. The least powerful messenger that a god might send into the world. Your awareness is flooded with a meeting with Chronos, which you know never happened, where he explains in detail that he’s sending you into the world to avert its destruction in 5 years time. The wizard Venma tries to ascend to godhood, but rather than just taking her place among the gods, she attempts to usurp control of the entirety of the heavens and put herself above all others. Her spell doesn’t work properly and instead reality is obliterated. Chronos is sending you to a point in time 5 years before this and putting you into the world to avert this from happening.”

  
Looking at Anne, Gary switched to a more conversational tone. “You said you didn’t like that reality was destroyed at the end of time in this game world. Now you have a chance to change it!”

  
“So that’s our mission, to stop Venma from destroying reality?” Margaret asked.

  
“Well,” Gary began to clarify, “that’s your mandate as divine servants from the god who created you. You each have your own personality, so you can go about it in whatever manner you think best. It wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense if one of you just decided, you know, to join Venma and help him.”  
“I thought Venma was a woman,” Frank asked.

  
“Yeah, when we talked about the world last time Venma was a woman,” Kate agreed.

  
“Uh, yeah. Venma is a woman – sorry. I keep forgetting that this world is a matriarchy,” Gary acknowledged. Quickly recovering his confidence he added, “Of course, there might be some confusion in the historical records about Venma’s gender. Either way – Chronos is telling you she’s a woman, a magic user and will destroy the world in 5 years to the day and that you’re supposed to stop it.”

  
“I want each of you to think about the characters you created,” he continued.

  
“Which you just killed off!” Anne chimed in.

  
“Yes, which I just killed off,” Gary agreed, “I want you to think about why your character would be willing to follow the will of the gods. It could be that they’re very pious or that they’re very pragmatic – there’s no reason to try to fight gods, or whatever but each of them have a reason why they wouldn’t oppose the will of the gods, why they’d go along with them. Frank, shall we start with you?”

  
“Well, since Gevot is a thief, I guess he would just be very pragmatic. He’s decided that it’s in his best interest to go along with the gods’ will.”

  
“Well, Hernan was always interested in Human gods. Elves don’t have their own gods, right?” Dave answered.

  
“Right, Elves were created by the wizard Elf centuries ago. As magical creations they’re viewed as not having a soul and don’t have gods. After they die they don’t go to the afterlife. Some worship Elf as a creator of sorts, but it’s unknown whether or not he actually ascended to godhood. Dwarf created the Dwarves and Hobbit created the Halflings,” Gary thought back to the previous session’s world building. “I think that’s what we all agreed, right?”

  
“Yeah, I think so,” agreed Dave. “So, Hernan has come to the human areas to learn more about the human gods.”

  
“You aren’t from the new world like the humans in the group are. You would have been hired in the city of Hope or at the Frontier Fort as a non-human mercenary by Lady Grace to join the squad. All the human characters are from the new world.”

  
“Ok,” said Dave.

  
After each of the players had detailed their character’s motivation for following the gods’ will, Gary prepared to launch into the game narration again.  
“So, all of a sudden you’re back in time a couple of minutes, right before the spider first attacked Lady Grace.”

  
“What do you call people like Lady Grace again?” asked Margaret.

  
“NPCs, which stands for non-player characters,” answered Gary tersely, annoyed at the interruption.

  
“That’s why the alt-right websites call liberals NPCs, because we don’t matter,” Margaret added smirking at the foolishness of it.

  
“Ok, so you’re back before the fight started,” Gary continued, trying to get the game back on track. “All of a sudden you feel a rush into your consciousness of the time sprites joining your characters’ minds. It’s not like a possession, it’s more that suddenly you have both minds in your head at once, but they’re in perfect harmony and each instantly knows everything that the other mind knows.”

  
“So we know that spiders are about to kill us?” asked Anne.

  
“Yes, and how the fight played out before. Because you can anticipate the spiders’ attacks and strategies I’ll give you a +2 to attack and damage against them, and improve your AC by 2 when they attack you.”

  
“Oh, so we get to fight them again?” she clarified and Gary answered, “yeah”.


	3. Chapter 3

Correctly anticipating the spiders attempt to dodge, Beler brings down her sword, cleaving the last of the vermin in half. Blood, venom, webbing and viscera drains from the carcass onto the forest floor.

  
“Well done squad!” Lady Grace congratulates the mercenaries, wiping blood and filth off of her face. “I’ll be honest with you that I thought we were in trouble

when that first spider bit me. You all handled yourselves like veterans.”

Damin begins praying to her god, holding her hands above Lady Grace’s wounds. As the prayer finishes, her wounds close, fully healed.

“Looks like the spiders got someone before us” calls out Gevot, gesturing at a webbed skeleton. “From the size of the bones, I’d guess it was an elf.” He begins searching the corpse, pulling apart rotted armor. In the end, after debating with himself, he takes the only item still intact - a filthy shield.

“Set up camp, people. With the spiders dead this is probably as safe an area as anywhere to let the magic user and cleric study and meditate. The rest of you stay alert. I don’t want anything catching us unaware. Gevot, if you want to scout around and see if there are any other victims or treasure, feel free but don’t wander too far away.”

Nalda carefully takes out her spellbook and begins memorizing her spell again. Kneeling next to her, Damin begins to pray quietly.

With everyone getting to work and not paying attention to her, Lady Grace’s expression softens and betrays worry. She scratches at the recently healed bite.

Once more she wonders to herself whether this is what the path to glory and fortune ought to look like. Thinking about the lives that she is responsible for floods her with worry. That fight with those spiders could have gone differently, she thinks - we got lucky.

Those on guard all watch Gevot as he attempts to slip through the shadows and explore the area. He still hasn’t gotten the trick of it. A long snap echoes through the clearing as he steps on a branch and looks at his companions sheepishly.

A grunt from Lady Grace gets everyone’s attention. Nalda and Damin abandon their attempts at spell preparation. The corporal is rubbing the shoulder that was wounded and keeps flexing her arm.

“It was itching pretty badly and now it’s started to feel like it’s burning,” she explains to Damin, “I hate to be a bother, but it seems like it’s getting worse.”

Damin looks at the wound with concern.

“My lady, my prayers heal injury but I am not powerful enough to cure poison.” she explains. “Does anyone have an antidote?”

“I thought about getting some at the Fort, but we had more pressing needs,” Lady Grace replies. “No matter. I’m certain it will be a momentary discomfort, then it will burn out of my system. Let’s begin to travel back to the Fort and if it doesn’t improve we can get further healing there.”

Gathering up their belongings, the group is about to break camp and depart when Lady Grace falls thrashing to the ground. The group quickly restrains her and, after a few minutes, she passes out. Worried, the party begins to construct a sling to carry her on a blanket with some nearby branches. Once it is prepared and they begin to shift Lady Grace into it, they realize she is dead.

“Peace be with you in the next world, my Lady,” Damin prays, closing the corporal’s eyes for the last time.


	4. Chapter 4

“Thanks again for playing,” Gary said to Kate. “I know you were on the fence, and no obligation to keep coming out if you aren’t enjoying it. It helps the party a lot to have a magic user.”

“No problem,” Kate replied, smiling. “Besides, you’d have the car so I’d just be trapped at home if I DIDN’T come play! I thought that magic missile was the best first level spell, but it just feels like there’s nothing I can do after I cast my only spell. My AC is so high, since I can’t wear armor and with only 4 hit points it feels like I’ll die as soon as I enter melee.”

“Yeah, you’re right. You don’t want to try to get into the mix with the fighters without any armor and with so few hit points. Magic users tend to really get powerful at higher levels. At low levels they’re a challenge to play and you really need your party’s support to keep them alive. It can be a good idea to rest often to recover spells. If you’ve cast your only spell, you’re not adding much to the party until you’ve memorized it again.

“So, my character Damin memorizes spells too?” asked Anne.

“No, since Damin is a cleric, she prays to her god and receives spells from divine favor. It works similarly that the spell lasts until you cast it, then you need to pray for it again. The biggest difference is that you know all your spells already. You don’t need a spellbook like Kate’s character Nalda. She only has a single spell to choose from. You have a bunch!”

“But I lose them if I ever cast them? Forever?” Anne asked unhappily.

“Just until you pray for them, then you get them again. You have a set number of spells you can prepare, for you right now it’s one. As you go up in level and become more powerful you’ll be able to memorize more. Each time the party rests, you have the chance to pray and you can prepare one of your first level spells. You cast it whenever you want, then, after you’ve used it, the next time you rest you can prepare a spell again - either the same spell or a different one.”

Gary started narrating again, “So, Lady Grace lies dead in front of you and you’re out in the forest, about a 6 hour journey away from the Fort. What do you want to do next?”

“The ‘Fort on the Frontierland’ is the same as the module name, right?” asked Margaret as she considered their options.

“Yup,” confirmed Gary. “You sailed from the old world, passed through the city of Hope which was colonized 14 years ago and travelled inland a couple of days to get to the Fort. The Castellan there had hired the Blue Company, which sent your squad led by Lady Grace, to investigate the recent attacks on caravans trading with the Fort. You’ve been patrolling the area for 2 days and it’s mid morning when you encountered the spiders and lost your corporal.”

“Lady Grace is our corporal?” asked Frank. “Well, was, but yeah,” Gary answered.

“Now, I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” Dave began, turning on the southern drawl he’d decided to use when talking in character as the elf Hernan. “But are we going to be blamed when we turn up with a dead corporal?”

“Yeah!” agreed Anne, turning to Gary, “Will they arrest us for her death?”

“The conventions of the land are that you were going into the wilderness with the expectation you’d be facing danger. If you return with Lady Grace dead, the people at the Fort will probably just express their condolences.”

“Are we supposed to bring back her body?” asked Frank.

“That’s up to you I suppose. Your characters know that it wouldn’t be inappropriate to bury her where you are, but if you want to bring the body back with you, that would be ok too.”

After conferring, the players decided to bury the body after stripping her of her possessions. Margaret decided Beler would put on the necklace that Lady Grace had been wearing. Behind his screen Gary rolled dice twice and told them they travelled back, uneventfully, to the fort and approached as dusk began to fall.

“The side door to the fort’s main entrance opens as you approach and Sergeant Suzie welcomes you back. She’s equipped with chainmail armour, wears a helmet and is holding a halberd. She’s rolled up her chainmail sleeves to show off her bulging biceps. ‘Where’s Lady Grace?’”

“Alas, she fell to foul beasts in battle in the forest,” Margaret spoke as Beler, smiling uncertainly. “We laid her to rest in a peaceful area of the forest.” She shrugged a little as looked around at the other players.

“Sergeant Suzie expresses her condolences and tells you she’ll pass a report up the ranks and that the captain will probably meet you later at the inn you’re staying at.”

After verifying that the shops have closed for the day, the players decide that they’ll drink back at the inn until the Captain shows up. After a few hours she does. After expressing her regrets on the party’s loss, the Captain tells them a round of drinks will be provided by the fort.

“We thank you for acknowledging our loss,” Margaret said as Beler.

“Who will now be in charge?” Gary asked as the Captain “We’re assuming that you’re capable of continuing with the commission.”

After a conference, the party elected Beler leader and let her move into the single room that Lady Grace had formerly occupied, while the rest of the party shared a larger room.

Gary continued “Going through Lady Grace’s possessions, you find a journal where she detailed your training, the mission you’ve been given and your travels to get to this point. She is far more candid in the journal about her uncertainty and her worries. She has ideas about the training and development of each of your characters, which provides insight, and you each receive 150 experience points from considering them.”


	5. Chapter 5

An ever increasing sense of wrongness washes over the party as they approach the non-descript cave entrance ahead of them. Each feels static roll across their bodies and the hairs on their arms stand up.

“Hold up everyone,” orders Yenser. “Try looking away from the cave entrance for a few seconds.”

As a group, they look away and each has the novel sensation of confusion between the two minds inhabiting their bodies. Their secular consciousness looses all memory of the cave and begins thinking about where they would go next, while their divine consciousness remembers what they had been doing. Each worldly consciousness believes the information from their divine counterpart, but still has no recollection of what they had been doing.

“Ah gotta say, that’s a new one for me!” muses Hernan, looking back at the cave entrance. “Do we keep going?”

After debating the pros and cons, the party continues forward.

Peering into the cavern, a strange sight confronts them. In the middle of a 50 foot circular room is a pillar of crackling energy, beginning at the base of the floor and stretching up 10 feet, with a width of approximately 5 feet. The energy itself looks like nothing any of them has seen before. It writhes and crackles silently, seemingly confined to the area it is in.

Moving cautiously into the room, each of the heroes approaches the column, feeling the sense of wrongness threatening to overwhelm them. Pushing themselves to the limit, they are able to approach the pillar and gaze into its depths as light from it dances across the cave’s ceiling and walls.

Gevot does a short circuit around the room and reports that the entrance is the only passage he’s able to find.

“What next?” asks Beler, as the group looks at one another.

Suddenly, the cleric Damin’s arm shoots out and plunges itself into the column of energy, disappearing up to her elbow. The rest of the group stare at her in confusion as she gives a slight shrug then pulls her arm back out of the column.

Her plate armor and gauntlet are unchanged by the energy, but when she pulls the armored glove off, everyone sees that her hand has become a dark indigo color. As she pull back her armor, the coloration could be seen to cover the entirety of her arm that had entered the energy field. Despite attempts to wash or clean it off, the pigmentation of her flesh has been permanently changed.

With a sudden shout, the thief Gevot runs and launches himself into the energy field. His battlecry ends suddenly as he disappears into the field. The remaining members are disturbed at the strange actions the members of the party are taking.

Each of them begins to feel the divine energy that they had been cut off from since coming to the mortal realm. It feels like being on the verge of starvation, then taking a bite of food. They feel a slight connection to Chronos restored and the energy begins to fill them again. A blue light, which would have been invisible to anyone other than divines, exits the column and they hear, through their telepathic connection with Gevot’s time sprite, that his body had disintegrated within the column and only his time sprite remains.

Backing away from the column, the party silently confers through divine communication with one another and rapidly determines that Gevot’s time sprite can move through walls and scout the area for them, moving at roughly walking speed. They also determine that they could increase the rate of divine energy gathering within them, but left on it’s own it would fill them in about one day’s time.

Having scouted the area and not found any hidden tunnels, the group doesn’t know what to do without Gevot. They decide to pull more divine energy to discover what will happen once they are full.

Moments later they all spring back to full awareness as time sprites in the divine realm again. They see their past stretching back to when they first inhabited the temporal adventurers after Lady Grace had been bitten by the giant spider. They find that, by reaching group consensus, they can go back to any point in time leading up to where they lost one of their members. They also become aware that they can switch bodies and change which adventurer each of them inhabits, but none of them have any interest in changing.

Much like learning the ability to isolate a muscle you had never consciously used before, the group becomes aware of how they can pull on this energy and travel back in time even if one of them has not died.

Following a discussion of their options, the group finds themselves back in time after entering the cave and decides to camp for the night instead of entering the energy field. In the morning, after a restless night disturbed by the malevolent energy, they leave the cave and continue their journey through the forest.


	6. Chapter 6

“I don’t understand, so we can just time travel whatever we want?” asked Anne.

“Well, yeah, but only within your own timeline, basically back to an earlier point in your adventures,” Gary replied.

“Doesn’t that make things too easy? If we can’t die?” she continued.

“Maybe. You were tasked with preventing an ascension to godhood and the destruction of reality so maybe that isn’t so easy. If it makes it easy for you to solve that problem, then great! Chronos chose wisely in creating you!”

“If we can only go back in our own timeline to an early point in the adventure, I don’t think it makes things too easy,” said Margaret, thinking out loud. “It just lets us continue instead of ending the game like when the spiders killed us”.

“Is this really how the game works?” asked Anne.

“The time sprites and all of that is just for our game, it isn’t standard C&C,” explained Gary. “All of the combat and magic with the game *IS* how it works, pretty standard.”

“I don’t see any way we can use time travel to immediately fix the problem,” said Dave. “It doesn’t tell us where Venma is or how to stop her.”

“But, if we find out later, we could always come back to this moment then use that information, right?” asked Frank.

“Sure,” agreed Gary, “but if you’d become more powerful and accumulated magic items then you came back to this moment, you’d no longer have those things. So you’d have the knowledge, but not how you’d build up your characters.”

“So we lose all our experience if we go back in time?” ask Anne in a panic.

“Just the experience that you gained after the moment you went back to. And, since your time sprites will have had those experiences and can help guide and train your characters, I’ll double any experience you gain when you start playing again until you get back to your previous experience total.”

“And, we could always go and reclaim any magic items we’d found that we liked, right?” asked Kate.

“Sure! You’ll know where it is and how you got it the first time,” agreed Gary.

“So what are we supposed to do now?” asked Anne.

“Anything you want!” Gary answered. “If you have an idea how to use your power to fix the problem right now you can. If you want to go back through Hope and travel back to the new world and try to enlist help from the Queen and the authorities there you can. If you want to go to one of the non human settlements - you know of the elven, halfing and dwarven settlements closest to the keep, you can. If you want to go back to Hope and try to get help from people there, you can. It’s a much bigger community than the fort. If you want to go on adventures and build up your characters to have more options when you go to deal with Venma, you can. If you want to continue on the mission you were given to help the fort as Blue Company, you can. If you can all agree on doing something else, that’s ok too. Whatever you want.”

“So, we could head off to the halfling settlement and see Yenser’s people?” asked Laura.

“Sure! You’d be travelling through dangerous country; the whole reason why the fort hired you was because caravans were being attacked. You might get attacked on the way by whatever has been causing them problems. Blue Company might be upset at you for abandoning your mission, but they’re a LONG way away so it’d probably be a while before they figured out you’d gone AWOL - they’d probably assume you’d been killed first.”

“What about if we went back to the new world?” asked Frank. “They’d get angry at us there, right?”

“Well, they’d probably want to know why you gave up and returned, but it’s not like you’d be executed or anything. The terms of your contract with them is that when you return to the new world you’re expected to give them all treasure that you found except that you can keep 200 gold pieces and 1 magic item of your choice. If you give them what you’ve agreed to, they’d probably let you go your own way. If you didn’t want to fulfill your contract, you could sneak back to the new world and not pay them. They’d probably be pretty angry if they caught you after you did that…” Gary explained.

“I don’t think there’s an obvious way to handle Venma right now,” Dave suggested, “I think we should develop our characters and keep looking for any rumours about her. Continuing to try to deal with the issues for the Fort seems like a good next step.”

Looking at the map, Dave asked where the road that ran past the Fort led.

“To the west it goes back to Hope, where you came from. In the North-East it leads to the halfling settlement of Welton. Beyond Welton are the elven settlements of Amhil and the Dwarven fortress of Korbur.”

“If caravans have been getting attacked, maybe travelling along the road towards the halfings is our best bet. Maybe whatever has been attacking them will attack us. If it’s bigger than we can handle, then we just time travel back before the attack and avoid it,” Dave said, as he got up from the table. After another few minutes of discussion, the group decided to take Dave’s recommendation.

“As you travel along the road to the north east” Gary began his narration, “you catch occasional glimpses of movement in the forest. Small creatures seem to be following you along the road.”

Margaret replied that the party keeps moving along the road, keeping awareness of the creatures in the underbrush.

“A small group of 4 foot tall, bipedal reptilian creatures begin forming into a group of roughly a dozen individuals. They have primitive spears and clothing - nothing much more than loincloths. They begin following you along the road, chittering at one another in their own language.”

“Aww, cute!” said Laura, “They’re little creatures with their own spears.”

“We walk back and greet them!” Margaret enthusiastically decided.

“They get excited as you approach, and all but one of them lowers their spears ready to attack. The largest member moves forward and begins barking and gesturing at you. They all have enormous eyes.” Gary continued.

Holding up her hand, Margaret announced as Beler, “We mean you know harm and come in peace.”

“The kobolds… errr, small reptilian creatures,” Gary began and was immediately cut off.

“Those are kobolds! They were on one of the random monster tables,” said Laura.

“I didn’t know they were reptilian,” said Frank.

“Ha! The Dragon Master makes mistakes and now we know what they are,” said Anne.

“Yes, they’re kobolds.” Gary sighed. “Anyways, the leader begins shaking his spear at Beler, gesturing at Lady Grace’s necklace that she’s wearing.”

“I very slowly take it off and offer it to them,” Margaret said with a smile “I think we’re making friends with them!”

Gary continued, “As a group they excitedly examine the necklace and begin backing away from you. They depart back into the forest.”

“What just happened?” asked Dave, returning from the washroom. “Who went back into the forest?”

“We met kobolds!” announced Laura “And we gave them Lady Graces necklace to become friends!”

“Is it too late to attack them?” asked Dave “Are they all gone?”

“Yes, they’ve departed,” responded Gary.

“Dammit!” said Dave, annoyed. “I can’t believe we were mugged by KOBOLDS!”

Margaret laughed and said “I guess that was more of a mugging than making contact with an indigenous people.”

“If you see kobolds or goblins you kill them,” instructed Dave. “Actually, killing anything is a good default move. Especially with the time travel power, we can always go back in time if we don’t want something to be dead.”

After the party made camp, the kobolds return in the night and attack them. The sleeping party members fail their intelligence checks to wake up and a kobold slits Laura’s throat while she sleeps. After the end of the fight, the players decide to travel back in time to their first meeting with the kobolds and handle them differently.


	7. Chapter 7

As the kobolds exit the forest and form into a group behind them, the Blue Company members silently glance at one another. After squinting at Beler, Hernan turns while pulling an arrow from his quiver, immediately draws back his bow and fires. The arrow flys over the kobold’s heads.

Neinna chants “טיל הקסם” and energy strikes the lead kobold, knocking him dead.

Drawing their bows, Gevot, Beler and Yenser fire arrows in rapid succession; one kobold is hit and killed and one another is injured. The noises of the forest quiet as the injured kobold screams.

Recognizing the distance disadvantage, the reptilian creatures begin charging along the road, waving spears and shouting. Damin hefts her mace and prepares herself.

The magic user Nalda holds her dagger defensively as she retreats behind her companions. The party fires another volley of arrows at the approaching warband. The injured kobold fell along with another member of his group. The remaining 8 monsters draw closer to the mercenaries.

Switching from her bow to her two-handed sword, Beler moves forward and braces for contact with Damin by her side. Yenser and Hernan fire a final volley of arrows before contact, but both miss their targets.

Kobolds surround the two forward fighters, with three on each of them. The remaining two enemies slip around the defenders and advance on the elf and halfling. Lunging with their spears, Beler is the only one injured as a kobold spear stabs her shoulder.

Having switched to his long sword from his bow, Hernan gets past the kobold’s defense and stabs him in the chest. Gurgling its last breath, it fallsl to the ground. Beler manages to connect against one of her opponents, nearly cleaving the creature in two when her massive sword rips through it.

Both Yenser and Damin exchange blows with their opponents, failing to damage any of them.

Minutes later, the group pants heavily as kobold bodies littered the ground in front of them. Two prisoners cower and make fearful noises until Hernan kicks one of them. After a brief discussion, the party ties up the two prisoners and travels with them back to the Fort.


	8. Chapter 8

“I feel really badly that we had to kill them. I keep thinking about how colonization efforts treat indigenous people. Maybe those woods were their home…” mused Laura as they recorded the looted treasure from the kobolds on their character sheets.

“Kobolds are only there to be killed,” opinioned Dave, as he wrote on his sheet. “I’ll take the copper pieces if no one else wants them.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of bad,” Margaret agreed with Laura. “And it’s pretty meager treasure we got off of them. It would have been nice if we’d been able to find some sort of common ground.”

Laughing at herself, she continued “We’re such academics! How can we find common ground with the monsters in a fantasy game!”

“Speaking of which,” Gary responded. “We’re *THREE WEEKS* into the term and I still don’t have a computer. I don’t know how they expect me to teach computer science without a workstation in my office, but at this point it’s becoming pretty clear they don’t care.”

“Yeah, that’s how they roll,” agreed Dave. “There was a workstation in my office, but someone stole most of the RAM out of it. It runs slower and slower through the day until I restart it. I’m up to restarting it 5 or 6 times a day.”

“Somehow I got two iPads which I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with them,” said Anne. “I negotiated a Powerbook and an iPad with my contract, and I got them both, but then two days later a second iPad arrived. I don’t want to get in trouble for getting sent two of them, but I don’t want to return one then have them ask for the other one back or something.”

“Keep them both! I’m sure they’ll never realize what happened. Frank can use the second one. If they ever ask for it, just give it back,” Gary suggested. “This place is such a shit show.”

“Well, that’s what you get for working at Midwest Lutheran College!” teased Anne. “The Provost was really tough to negotiate with. She told me they had two other candidates for the music position and I could either take the salary offered or leave.”

“Really? She was a lot more flexible for CS,” Gary responded. “I was annoyed when they announced she was fired before the term started. I felt like we understood one another a lot better than the new interim Provost.”

“So, is there any way we’d be able to talk to the kobold prisoners?” asked Laura.

“Well, I’m running languages in the world as a bunch of very regional, kind of pidgin dialects. Any time you move to a new area it has its own language. Each day that you’re there, you make an intelligence check. After your first success you can exchange a single word in that language. After a second success you can exchange simple phrases with occasional misunderstandings and after a third success you’re basically fluent with a thick accent and can interact in that language. Whenever you learn languages in a new area, make a note of it on your character sheet in case it’s relevant in the future.”

“And that works for kobolds too?” asked Laura.

“Yep! And dwarves, elves and halflings. Each settlement or group will have their own dialect. Sometimes someone in it might understand another dialect you know. The non-human characters can each speak the language of their home settlements. If you want to spend a few hours each day trying to communicate with the kobolds, you’ll potentially learn some of their language.”

“What about if we time travel back before we learned it?” asked Andew.

“Well, in that case your time sprite would know the language better than your character did and can translate for them or prompt them through pronouncing things in the other language - so you keep language skills even after time travelling.”

After rolling a couple of times behind his screen, Gary announces that they make it back to the Fort with their prisoners.

“Sergeant Suzie is impressed when you show up with the prisoners. She flexes her biceps at Gevot and leans in and tells him she wants to hear all about the battle later at the tavern.”

“Ha! Is she hitting on him?” asked Margaret.

“Yes, knowing what you know about the human civilization in this world you’d guess she’s hitting on him,” Gary answered.

“Yeah! I’ll meet with her later!” agreed Frank.

“The guards lead the kobold prisoners off to the dungeon. What do you want to do next?” Gary asked.

“So, can I spend time with the kobolds and try to learn their language and eventually interrogate them about whether or not they’re the ones attacking the caravans?” asked Margaret.

“Sure, you can visit them in the dungeons and try to learn from them.” agreed Gary “What’s everyone else doing?”

“Nalda and Hernan know different spells, can they teach them to one another?” asked Dave.

“Yes” replied Gary “Typically in this world spells would be an intensely personal thing and it would be considered a very intimate act to give someone access to your spellbook. Usually specialized trainers would work with you and help you build your own version of spells for 100 gold pieces times the level of the spell. Because all of you are on a divine mission you’re willing to ignore the standard conventions and you can teach each other spells that you know and the other character is capable of learning. You can also teach yourself a spell from a scroll with that spell on it or you can cast the spell from the scroll as a one time effect. Any of these takes 1 day per spell level of the spell you’re learning. The day isn’t 24 hours of continual effort, but more a work day that you can do while you have meals and take breaks and all that sort of thing.”

“Ok, then we could spend the time teaching each other our spells if you want,” Dave suggested to Kate. “I know ‘Charm Person’ and you know ‘Magic Missile’ so we can swap them.”

“Sure,” agreed Kate. “Is there a limit to the number of spells we can learn? I thought I could only have one per day.”

“The one per day is the limit to how many spells you can memorize and cast. There’s no limit on the number that you can learn, which are spells you have in your spellbook and can choose between when you’re deciding what to memorize.”

“And this doesn’t affect me as a cleric, right?” asked Anne. “I don’t need to swap spells with them too?”

“No, because you get your spells directly from a god, you can pray for ANY of the cleric spells that you’re capable of casting. It’s like you’ve already learned all of them.”

“That’s pretty good, isn’t it?” asked Anne.

“Yeah! Clerics are great. Good spell casting, wide range of spells they can use, they can wear any armor, lots of hit points, good fighters. It’s surprising that they aren’t more popular,” Gary agreed. “So, Beler is going to learn Kobold, Hernan and Nalda are learning spells. What are Gevot and Anne doing?”

“ANNE is playing Creatures and Caverns!” corrected Anne. “Are there any other clerics or a church or religious people in the fort that Damin could talk to?”

“Yes, there’s a chapel and the Curate is the cleric who is in charge of it. She tends, with a number of assistants, to the spiritual needs of the fort. There’s also a travelling priest with two acolytes who is visiting the fort right now that you could meet with.”

“Ok, I’ll do that,” said Anne.

“I’m going to spend time with Sergeant Suzie and is there a thieves’ guild I could make contact with here?” asked Frank.

“The fort is too small for a thieves guild, but if you were in Hope you could make contact with the underworld there.” Gary answered.

“Ok, I’ll date Sergeant Suzie and try to scout around the fort and pick up any information I can,” decided Frank.

“Ok, so for the first day, make your intelligence check Margaret,” instructed Gary.

Margaret rolled and announced that she’d failed.

“Ok, so you don’t learn any kobold today. You get chatty with the dungeon guards and they don’t seem to care that you’re coming here meeting with the kobolds. Who is learning a spell today?”

Dave answered that he would teach Kate Charm Person. “That takes up all our time for both of us, right?”

“Yeah, you still have time to eat and stuff, but that’s your main activity for the day. Damin spends time with the Curate and the travelling Priest. Both are happy to talk to you. The Curate doesn’t have any information to pass on except that she’s worried about the local issues with caravans being attacked. The travelling priest’s two acolytes have taken vows of silence, but the priest himself is a jovial character who is very welcoming and immediately invites you into his chambers. He offers you wine and various delectables and is happy to discuss theology or anything else you’d like to talk about.”

“Does he know anything about the caravan attacks?” asked Anne.

“Just that they’ve been happening. He travels around the Cursed Colony, spending time at outposts like the Fort trying to spread the faith. He agrees that it’s terrible that the caravans have been coming under attack.”

“While you have your date with Sergeant Suzie she keeps cutting off your story about the kobolds to brag about various feats of strength she’s performed or her duties as a guard at the fort. Eventually, you end up back in a secluded area of the guards barracks and she has her way with you. In the morning, she’s noticeably less friendly and basically blows you off and goes back to her routine.”

“Did she just have a one-night stand with Gevot?!?” laughed Margaret.

Frank shrugged and said, “I’ll start scouting around trying to pick up any gossip or clues around the fort.”

“Yeah, she did!” Gary agreed. “You can spend the next day gathering information.”

“So, will people at the fort be angry at Gevot for sleeping with her?” asked Laura.

“Remember this is a matriarchy,” replied Gary. “Probably the popular view would be that Sergeant Suzie was just doing what guards do. They’d probably view Gevot as having done something that he shouldn’t have.”

“Oh well,” Frank replied, clearly not caring.

“So can I learn magic missile today?” asked Dave.

“Yep, that’s what the two of you can do. Make another intelligence check to learn kobold Margaret.”

After rolling she said, “Another failure.”

“Wait,” Laura broke in. “What has Yenser been doing?”

“That’s up to you” replied Gary.

“I’ll learn kobold with Margaret I guess,” replied Laura.

“Make two intelligence checks then, one for yesterday and one for today.”

Laura said, “I passed the first one and failed the second.”

“Ok, so Laura is learning very basic kobold. Not enough to discuss things of importance, but enough to name objects and whatnot.”

Rolling behind his screen, Gary said to Frank, “You don’t discover anything investigating around the fort.”

“At the end of the day, you return to the dungeon to talk some more to the kobolds and you see their two bodies lying on the floor of their cell. Their dinner is half eaten and spread around them. Both are dead, although the guards didn’t realize it until you draw their attention to the cell. They seem to have been poisoned.”

“Oh, great!” Margaret responded. “So someone in the fort doesn’t want us getting information from them.”  
Gary shrugged.

“Should we go back in time and find out who sent down the poisoned food?” asked Margaret.

“I kind of feel like we shouldn’t be overusing the time travel,” suggested Dave. “There might be some price to be paid from it that we’re not aware of yet. We can probably get other kobold prisoners and learn the language from them.”

“Yeah,” agreed Frank “I think we should head back out to the cave with the energy column and where the kobolds were.”


	9. Chapter 9

Advancing once again towards the Memory Loss Cave, each member of the party is unsettled by the experience of their split consciousness having differing memories of the area. Moving into the cavern proper, Beler guards the entrance while the others examine the pillar of energy.

Keeping a safe distance between themselves and the phenomena, Nalda, Damin and Hernan each approach and inspect it. After several minutes of contemplation, all three agree that they have no insights on what it is or what could be causing it.

Having exhausted any obvious avenues of investigation for the site, Hernan suggests hunting for the kobold’s lair in the area around the road and the group carefully withdraws.

\---

After wandering for hours in a search pattern, the adventurers glance at one another as they look down the broad, dirt path leading into the gully. A huge number of footsteps show this to be a well trafficked area, and the various entrances along the sides of the wall beckon ominously as the wind whistles through the ravine.

Some of the higher cave entrances have skull decorations around them, removing any possibility that this is an uninhabited wilderness area.

Examining the footsteps in the dirt, smaller imprints lead to and from the nearest entrance on the ground floor of the gully. Moving carefully towards it, the entire party has the sense of being watched.

Staring into the blackness of the cavern, Hernan and Yenser are able to use their infravision to see its depths. Emerging from the darkness, faint indigo hues begin to resolve themselves into cool stone walls, floor and ceiling. They see the passage continues for 20 feet, then branches off to both sides of the passage. The absence of red heat signatures reassure the elf and halfling that nothing alive is waiting for them inside. After a brief conference, the group lights two torches for the humans to be able to see and they begin to move into the passage.

Moving along the passage with Beler and Damin in front, Yenser and Nalda in the middle and Hernan bring up the rear, they walk into the intersection and the floor drops away beneath Beler and Damin. Both scramble to catch themselves, with Beler succeeding in grabbing the lip while Damin falls into the newly opened pit.

A loud crashing noise echoes down the halls from the pit opening, then, with only Beler’s weight holding them down, the lid bounces back and pushes her back to ground level. A loud click is heard as Damin is sealed below.

“I’m ok, just a little banged up,” they hear her muffled shout from below, followed immediately by a clatter and banging noise to the east. Something has heard them!


	10. Chapter 10

“So I took 3 damage from the fall, but Margaret didn’t take any?” asked Anne with a theatrical scowl.

“She made her dexterity check, so she managed to grab the lip as she started to fall. You failed so you fell into the pit and took 1d6 damage,” explained Gary.

“Are there spears or something at the bottom that damaged me?” she asked.

“No, just the fall. Characters take 1d6 damage per 10 feet fallen. Spears or blades at the bottom would do additional damage.”

“Can we see anything coming with our infravision?” asked Dave.

“Unfortunately when you’re near a large heat source, like the torches, it swamps your infravision and you can just see normally. If you wanted to use your infravision, you’d have to extinguish the torches, then the human characters would be blind.”

“That’s not a good idea,” said Kate.

“So, I guess I climb out of the pit,” announced Anne.

“Unfortunately the lid has sealed, so you’re trapped in there until it’s opened again”.

“Can I use ‘Cure Light Wounds’ to heal myself at least?” she asked.

“Sure,” Gary agreed “Roll 1d6 and add 1 and you’ll restore that many hit points.”

“I only rolled a one,” Anne admitted after rolling the 6 sided dice.

“SInce you took three damage, that will heal you for two and you’ll still be down a single hit point. The rest of the group sees eight kobold guards pour out of a northern passage, spears held ready. They’ve clearly been drawn from the noise of the trap being sprung and they charge at the party. Roll initiative!”

“We got a five,” Dave announced after rolling a six sider.

“I only got a three, so you have initiative. You get to do magic first, then they get to do magic, then you get to fire ranged weapons, then they get to fire ranged weapons, then you get to move and melee attack, then finally they move and melee attack. Since they’re charging, you can go ahead and do any magic or ranged attacks first.”

“I wish I could hit them with ‘Magic Missile’ again.” Kate announced. “But I decided to memorize ‘Sleep’ when we were back at the Fort. I don’t think that does anything here, right?”

“You can use ‘Sleep’ now if you want,” Gary admitted.

“That actually might be a good idea,” suggested Dave. “‘Magic Missile’ has just been taking out one guy at a time. If sleep could put more of them out of the fight that’d be worth it.”

“Ok, I’ll cast ‘Sleep’ then,” Kate said, changing her mind. “How does it work?”

“Read it over in the game manual that you have, then explain it to all of us. Basically it’ll put some of them to sleep, but I don’t remember how many or whether or not they get a saving throw.” Gary instructed.

The groups started talking about work as Kate looked up the spell in the game manual. Frank offered to make another pot of coffee if anyone was interested, while Anne’s dog Han lazily looked from his dog bed at the group of people sitting at the kitchen table.

“So, it says it only affects 4d+1 HD creatures, so will it affect kobolds?” Kate asked.

“Definitely,” confirmed Gary.

“It says that I can put 2d8 HD worth of creatures to sleep and that they can be killed instantly with a bladed weapon when they’re sleeping. So how many do I affect?” she asked.

“Roll your 8 sided die twice and add them together,” Gary instructed.

Rolling twice, Kate said “Ten”.

“All eight kobolds stumble and collapse to the group mid-charge. You hear loud snoring from the group of them.”

“They’re ALL asleep?!?” Anne asked in shock.

“Well that’s amazing,” announced Dave. “I should have learned ‘Sleep’ from you instead of ‘Magic Missile’”.

“When I played years ago I thought ‘Magic Missile’ was the best 1st level spell,” Kate said “I didn’t realize ‘Sleep’ is so good!”

“I think you were playing Advanced Creatures and Caverns when you played years ago.” Gary replied “It might have had a saving throw, I don’t remember. ‘Sleep’ is a very powerful 1st level spell.”

“Can I kill them all and take their stuff without falling into the pit?” asked Dave.

“You remember where the pit opened and you can jump over the edge of it to the kobold’s side. With any edged weapon you can kill them one at a time.” Gary confirmed.

“Wait!” Margaret suggested “Shouldn’t we take back a prisoner or two?”

“There’ll be more we can grab later,” suggested Dave “Let’s kill these now and look for prisoners later on.”

“How do we get Anne out of the pit?” asked Frank, refilling everyone’s coffee mugs.

“Can we push down on the side of the lids together to try to open it?” asked Margaret.

“Yes, straddling the edge and working together, you’re able to push down on it and trigger it again, reopening it. If any of you have rope you can lower it down and get Anne out of the pit.”

“Damin,” Anne corrected.  
“Damin,” Gary agreed.


	11. Chapter 11

Methodically, Hernan slits each of the sleeping creatures throats, showing no mercy as they die gurgling. He frisks the bodies and collects their meager treasure of copper and silver.  
Moving deeper into the complex, the group finds the guard’s room to the north where they had been waiting for them on guard. A few dirty, messy dishes and blankets providing meager comforts to the guards are found in the room, and three long planks lean against the wall. The party guesses these are used to cross the pit they had triggered earlier.

Doing their best to move undetected into the cave complex, the hunters creep further into the lair.

\---

With each swing of his battle axe, chains and jewelry rattle on the powerful Kobold chieftain’s arms. While still a diminutive five and a half feet tall, his powerful build and ferocious demeanor leave no uncertainty as to why he is the chief.

After misses from the other members of the party, Beler manages a mighty swing of her sword, neatly severing the chieftain’s head from his body and sending it flying across the room.

Without a pause, Hernan vaults across the body and begins stabbing the cowering kobold women and children at the back of the chieftain’s chamber.

“Wait!” cries Beler. “Don’t we want another couple of prisoners.”

Continuing the grizzly execution, Hernan grunts back, “These ones won’t know anything. We’ll have other chances to take prisoners.”

The others look on uncertainly as the elf efficiently strips the corpses of any valuables.

\---

Walking back along the now emptied lair, the group packs away the goods and treasures they’d discovered. Before exiting the cavern, Gevot decides to quickly scout down the passage they hadn’t taken when they entered.

Moments later he comes sprinting out of the passage shouting that a horde of giant rats are chasing him.

As they all run towards the exit, Beler asks Nalda if she could put them to sleep.

“I’m out of spells!” pants Nalda.

Running as fast as they are able, the group leaves the lair and jogs out of the gully, headed back to the Frontier Fort.

\---

Preparing for sleep back at the Fort, the party discusses their recent experiences and adventures. Nalda declares that she feels her capabilities are growing and that she has been able to memorize two, rather than one spell while studying before bed. Damin likewise has been granted a second spell from her god, and Yenser, Gevot and Beler each feel like they have improved their understanding of martial moves, and during practice forms and moves are coming more easily to each of them.

Only Hernan finds that his capabilities hadn’t grown, but he remains patient that they are all learning from their travels.


	12. Chapter 12

“So, each time we go up a level we get another d10 hit points?” asked Margaret.

“You do, because you’re a fighter. Kate gets d4 hit points, because she’s a magic-user,” replied Gary.

“A magic-user who rolled a one!” interjected Kate.

“I forget, did we roll hit points for level one?” asked Margaret.

Gary explained, “You didn’t. I’m using a house rule that every character gets full hit points for level one. Technically you should have rolled, but a fighter with a single hit point who dies the first time he’s hit just doesn’t seem like much fun to me.”

Margaret agreed, “No, that wouldn’t be fun.”

“Can we stay at the Fort for at least a day?” asked Dave. “Hernan is going to learn ‘Sleep’ from Nalda then memorize it for my single spell.”

“Yeah, I’m going to memorize ‘Sleep’ again too,” decided Kate.

“Are the hit points the only benefit from going up a level?” asked Laura.

“It’s easier to hit things as you go up levels,” offered Dave. “Look at the ‘to hit’ table that Gary printed out for us. You look up your level on the left hand side, then go across to the monster’s armor class to figure out what you need to roll to hit. You can see as you go down the table that it’s easier for you to hit a particular AC the higher level your character is.”

“Gevot’s thief skills go up each level. He has a percentage chance to pickpocket or climb or hide in shadows. Those go up each time he levels. Also, spell casters can learn more spells and sometimes higher level spells.”

“So, I can cast level two spells now that my cleric is level two?” asked Anne.

“The original designers loved the word ‘level’ and it’s horribly overused,” began Gary. “You have your character’s level, the level of spells you can cast, and the level of the dungeon you’re on. All three refer to entirely different things. There’s actually a comic about it and the punchline is all the confusion about the different meanings of ‘level’ over the years due to the designers not owning a thesaurus. You have a chart with your character information that shows the spell level you can cast as you go up in character levels. You’ll be able to cast level 2 cleric spells when you reach level 3. It’s confusing.”

“So all of us are still restricted to level 1 spells?” asked Kate.

“Yep, until you go up to level 3,” answered Gary. “What is everyone else going to do while Hernan learns ‘Sleep’?


	13. Chapter 13

Shadows flicker along the corridor as the invisible form of Wiscar the halfling reaches the top of the stairs. he thinks to himself as he silently moves along the corridor. Touching his amulet, he uses X-ray vision to look into the two rooms and he sees the five figures of the party members sleeping in their beds. He blows out the candles in the alcoves along the passage, plunging the upper level of the inn into darkness.

As his infravision resolves the nearby layout, he withdraws his lock picks and begins working on the first door. Standing silently after the click of the lock is released, he listens for any movement within. Hearing nothing, he pushes open the door and sees the heat pattern of the female warrior in her bed.  
he thinks as he creeps up to Beler and slits her throat. Her eyes shoot open, then immediately begin to dim as he, visible again, moves to the inner door separating the party’s two rooms.

Energy begins to gather as Beler’s time sprite tries to make sense of the scene in front of her. Telepathically screaming to the other time sprites does nothing as they slumber with the mortal hosts.

After a moment, Hernan’s time sprite comes to awareness as the elf’s body bleeds to death in his bed. Both sprites try to determine who this figure is and why he is attacking them.

After methodically executing each of the party members, Wiscar finishes by plunging his dagger in Nalda’s chest.

With all hosts dead, divine energy rushes back into the time sprites and within moments they are forced back to an earlier time.

\---

Shadows flicker along the corridor as the invisible form of Wiscar the halfling reaches the top of the stairs. he thinks to himself as he silently moves along the corridor. Touching his amulet, he uses X-ray vision to look into the two rooms and he sees the five figures of the party members arrayed around their main room ready to ambush him. he thinks . He blows out the candles in the alcoves along the passage, plunging the upper level of the inn into darkness.

With a crash, the door to their main room smashes open. With the humans unable to see, Hernan shouts that no one is in the doorway or has entered the room yet. Moments later, Hernan cries out and falls to the ground and a small heat source appears to Yenser above his body.

The party feels energy begin to slowly gather with the elf’s death.

Yenser swings her sword at the form but misses him. As he returns her attack he manages to cut her. The wound immediately feels like fire, clearly indicating the assassin is using some sort of poison.

Moving towards the halfing, the humans try to attack in the dark and each ends up swinging wildly.

Throwing a dagger at Nalda, she experiences the same feeling of a burning wound in her shoulder. “His weapons are poisoned” she shouts into the darkness.

As the time sprites try to coordinate the party’s attacks and tell the humans where to strike, the halfing mutters a command word and vanishes again. The group begins taking stock of themselves after the attack when suddenly the halfing appears again, having backstabbed the cleric Damin.

Light falls into the room, finally allowing Gevot to see, as a drunken group ascends the stairs to investigate the commotion. The halfling charges at Frank, who swings at him and misses. After multiple thrusts and parries, the halfling finally wears the thief down and the group of time sprites again feel the divine energy gathering as the halfling vanishes.

\---

Shadows flickers along the corridor as the invisible form of Wiscar the halfling reaches the top of the stairs. he thinks to himself as he silently moves along the corridor. Touching his amulet, he uses X-ray vision to look into the two rooms and he sees the five figures of the party members sleeping in their beds. He blows out the candles in the alcoves along the passage, plunging the upper level of the inn into darkness.

  
As his infravision resolves the nearby layout, he withdraws his lock picks and begins working on the first door. Standing silently after the click of the lock is released, he listens for any movement within. Hearing nothing, he pushes open the door and sees the bed in this room is empty.

  
he thinks as he pushes open the inner door to the second room and immediately collapses after being hit with ‘Sleep’ spells from Hernan and Nalda.


	14. Chapter 14

“I kill the little fucker before he can wake up and do something else!” said Dave, as the rest of the players cheered and high-fived.

“Wait! Don’t you think we should interrogate him first?” asked Margaret, flush with victory.

“This guy is trouble. I don’t want him killing any of us again. Let’s execute him, go through his stuff, and we can always go back and interrogate him later if we want to. I stab the son of the bitch!” declared Dave.

“You see his small, helpless form bleed out as you murder the defensely, incapacitated hobbit.” narrated Gary.

“Who just killed all of us! We’re not going to feel guilty” replied Anne.

“Actually, you went back in time such that he never killed any of you. All he did was enter your room and you killed him for it.” Gary answered.

“But he WOULD have killed us if we’d let him!” said Anne.

“Just like Bush’s justification for invading Iraq?” answered Gary, baiting Anne.

“Ok, let’s go through his stuff” suggested Frank.

“You find a halfling size suit of leather armor, Yenser is the only character it would fit. You find a short sword and dagger, a ring on each hand and an amulet around his neck. You also find 9 gems and a variety of potions” Gary said, listing the treasure.

“What do the potions look like?” asked Frank.

“There are 3 red potions, 8 green potions, 2 light grey potions and 2 dark grey potions.” Gary listed them off.

“How do we know what they do?” asked Margaret.

“We could always drink one, see what happens, then go back in time.” suggested Yenser.

“That’s a good idea, but I don’t think we should use the time travel just to identify potions. We should remember that we have them and drink one to identify it before we go back in time in the future.” suggested Dave.

“What are the gems?” asked Frank

“He had 4 diamonds, which as a thief you appraise for being worth around 500 gp each, 2 rubies which you appraise around 250 gp each and 5 sapphires which you appraise as being worth around 300 gp each.”

The players began chatting to one another as they realized their characters had just become rich.

“How do we identify the magic items?” asked Frank.

“There are detect magic spells, so that would tell you whether something was magical or not. If you use it, over time you might get a feel for if it’s magical. If you wore magical armor or used a sword, you’d eventually get a rough idea of its enchantment. Otherwise you can hire a sage and get them to identify items for you. There isn’t anyone who could do this in the Fort, it’s too small of a community, but there’d be multiple sages back in Hope.”

“So Nalda or I have to learn ‘Detect Magic’ at some point I guess?” asked Dave.

“Can I cast ‘Detect Magic’?” asked Anne.

“Look at your spell list!” instructed Gary.

“Yeah, I have it! I’ll cast it, what happens?” Anne replied.

“You have to pray for it first, but if you want to pray and rest you’ll be able to gain it then cast it.”

“Uh guys” said Margaret, “We have a dead body in our room. Are we going to get in trouble with the guards?”

“Knowing what you do about society, him creeping into your room at night armed to the teeth would likely be justification for killing him” Gary decided. “You might not want to tell them that you had him incapacitated then executed him, but other than that you probably wouldn’t get in any trouble.”

“Ok, I go down to the main room and tell them we were attacked and ask them to summon the captain of the guards then,” Margaret decided.

“The captain arrives 20 minutes or so later and investigates the room along with the innkeeper. The captain asks you if you knew the halfling.”

“No, good sir captain, this is the first time we’ve ever seen him,” says Margaret.

“Well the captain explains that the halfling had been seen around the Fort earlier in the day but no one knew who he was. He was asking about the party and the people downstairs told him all about you and which rooms you were in right before he came up and attacked you.”

“Thanks for nothing, guys!” said Dave, shaking his head in disgust.

“The captain has the body removed and the innkeeper asks if you’re comfortable staying in these rooms if she sends someone up to clean up the mess,” Gary narrated.

“Yes, we’re ok here if they clean it up,” decided Laura, shrugging at the other players.

“In the morning, Anne has memorized ‘Detect Magic’ and she can cast it if she wants. Other spells casters should also decide what they’ve prepared,” Gary said.

“I cast it, how does it work?” asked Anne.

“Read the spell description,” suggested Gary.

After reading, Anne explained, “Basically anything magical that I see glows. Do I cast it once for each item I examine? It says it lasts 2 turns.”

“So, no, 2 turns is 20 minutes, so for 20 minutes you see anything magical. You can cast it once then look at everything you want to examine,” Gary explained.

“Can I move while it’s active?” asked Anne.

“Yep!” confirmed Gary.

“Everyone, put all your stuff in a big pile in front of me and I’ll find out whatever is magic.” instructed Anne. After everyone had agreed, Gary iterated all the items that glowed with magic.

“So the leather armor, the short sword and the dagger that the halfling had. All the potions, the rings and the amulet all glow. The dirty shield that Frank took off of the elf skeleton in the forest glows. And that’s it, I don’t think any of you started with magic items or had anything else.”

“What about the gems?” asked Frank, “Maybe they’re cursed.”

“Nope, they’re non-magical gems,” answered Gary.

“Well, Yenser is the only person who can use the armor, so she should get that,” suggested Dave, “Who wants what from the rest of the stuff?”


	15. Chapter 15

The cleric Damin, having taken a sip of tea, places her cup back into her saucer. The plump, jovial priest across from her continues his anecdote about being mistaken for a higher ranking member of his order by a landowner outside of Hope.

“... and so I told him, actually I’m *NOT* the bishop, but I hope to be one day! Ha!” he finishes, laughing at his own story.

Damin smiled in response and tried to get back to useful information “So, you don’t have any ideas about what could have been causing the attacks?”

“Sadly no,” he replied, looking crestfallen. “Being on the edge of civilization, I suppose it isn’t surprising that issues like this come up. We certainly need to be able to safely travel in the area and it will be well worth establishing trade and relations with the non-humans! Did I tell you about the time I was trying to talk theology to a dwarven work party? Well, all I’d asked them was what their early theological education was like, and …”

Damin tries her best to remain attentive as another prolonged story begins.

\---

Gathered in their rooms, the party discusses the next step in their adventure.

“So, the travelling priest doesn’t know anything about the caravan attacks. I told him about the weird energy column in the cave we found and he said he hadn’t heard of anything like that either, but promised to write to his superiors and see if they had any ideas about it. He suggested that there are a number of temples and sages in Hope who we could consult about it,” relates Damin, bringing the party up to speed and quickly summarizing her 3 hour meeting with the priest.

“Ya’ll know we could always consult Sages about the items we found back there in Hope. I reckon it might be worth the trip back,” muses Hernan.

“There are still quite a few caves in the gully that we haven’t explored. It might be worth going out there before we travel to Hope. We’ll probably find other things that we want to consult on. The good people of the Frontier Fort need our help and that should be our priority,” decides Beler.

\---

Moving through the gully, the party re-enters the kobold caverns they had previously visited. Scouting through the system, they find it undisturbed from how they had left it.

Moving as a group into the cave with the giant rats, the party springs into action as soon as they see movement, with Nalda and Hernan putting most of the rats to sleep, then the rest of the party finishing off the survivors.

They make camp in the entrance to the kobold’s cave to let the magic-user and elf memorize their spells again.

\---

Entering the second cavern, higher up the gully slope above the kobold’s cave, the party sees that the cave continues straight then branches to both sides, much like the entrance to the kobold's cave. At the juncture of this cavern are shelves decorated with the rotting skulls from humans, elves, dwarves and halflings. Sounds echo from the west of the caves, while the east passages are silent.

As the party moves past the grizzly warning decorations, one of the heads pulls itself back from the wall unseen and a sentry departs deeper into the complex.

Moving into a large banquet area, the party sees a large, roaring fire, an assortment of chairs and tables and a large chair at a table on the north end, clearly meant for a leader of some sort. As they examine the unoccupied room, noises alert them to a party of five guards charging them from behind.

Powerfully built with green skin, each carries two spears. Dirty tusks protrude from their jaws and they scream a warcry and begin running at the party as soon as they realize they have been seen.

\---

Stabbing her enormous sword through the last guard’s chest, Beler pulls it out of his dying body and begins cleaning it. Hernan slips between the sleeping guards, executing them and looting their meager possessions. 

Moving back down the passage, they investigate where the guards had come from.

\---

The leader’s powerful blows crash against Beler’s armor, as she shifts position to absorb the blow. Rushing in from the side, Damin’s mace crashes into the side of his head, smashing his head to an unnatural angle. His cowering mates gasp as the powerful creature's body collapses.

Murder in his eyes, the elf Hernan advances on the leader’s now helpless family.


	16. Chapter 16

“So, we’re ok just killing all the children?” asked Margaret, looking perturbed.

“The only good orc is a dead orc,” said Dave, settling the situation to his satisfaction.

“I don’t want to leave anything that’s going to come back and attack us or cause us problems later.” said Frank thoughtfully. “It seems like clearing out the area is the smart move.”

“This just feels a lot like genocide,” said Laura. “We’ve entered their lands, gone into their homes, killed them and their families and taken anything of value they had.”

“Remember getting mugged by those kobolds?” asked Dave “That’s what they’d do to you if they had a chance!”

“I guess we don’t necessarily need to be viewing this fantasy world through the lens of colonial oppression and invasion,” mused Margaret, with a laugh “It just seems like we’re acting the same way that we’d be criticizing people in the past for acting.”

“Monsters are there to be killed, don’t think too much about it,” suggested Dave.

“Combat usually is a pretty common way to resolve issues in role playing games,” said Kate. “Most games I’ve ever been a part of, there are limits to what you can accomplish with diplomacy. Eventually it comes down to a fight.”

“In these game rules you get experience for treasure. In other editions experience comes from defeating monsters, so you kind of have to defeat creatures one way or another to improve. With getting experience from treasure, it’s always possible to improve your characters without fighting. If you slipped in somewhere and stole things from them, you’d then get the experience from the treasure. And if you convinced a monster to leave an area where it was causing trouble, without killing it, you’d still get the experience for ‘defeating’ it.” Gary explained.

“So, do we want to go back to the Fort to rest or find somewhere here?” Dave asked.

“We got the key for that storeroom” Frank suggested “Could we lock ourselves in there?”

“Sure,” Gary suggested. “Spell casters decide what spells you’re preparing”.

“Do we recover any hit points while we rest?” asked Anne.

“No, because you’re camping in rough accommodations. If you were back at the inn in the Fort I’d give you 1 hp for resting overnight. But not here,” Gary replied.

“But we can still get spells back,” she confirmed.

“Yep,” said Gary, “and you can always cast any healing spells you have before you rest, then prepare them again. The only danger then is if you’re attacked while camping before you prepare them, then you won’t have them to cast. But it’s probably better for everyone to be healed more than to have the spells available.”

“Ok, who is hurt the worst?” Anne asked the group.

“After healing and making yourselves as comfortable as possible in the storage room, you have an uneventful night. Come the morning, all spell casters have their spells prepared again and you’re just starting to wake up when you hear a knocking at the door.”


	17. Chapter 17

Opening the door the party sees the travelling priest from the Frontier Fort standing attentively. One of his acolytes holds a torch while the other keeps watch down the passage. All are equipped with armor and a mace attached to their belts.

“My friends, it’s good to see you all safe!” he shouts jovially, his voice echoing through the cavern. “After our talk, I left concerned that you were tackling such dangers yourself and decided to join you with my two acolytes. I’ve brought breakfast!”

After a meal and discussions about how to handle the remainder of the caves, the group makes their way towards the exit from the Orc caverns and exits back to the gully. As Beler and Damin go through the cave entrance, an enormous club swings down from above the entrance and throws Beler into the air and onto the ground some distance away. Damin turns to see a massive Ogre lying in wait above the entrance.

Waving his hand and loudly chanting, the travelling priest begins an appeal to his god. Energy shimmers around Nalda, Gevot, Hernan and Yenser and all of them, except for Yenser stiffen and become paralyzed.

The two acolytes cast spells of their own and multiple wounds open on Yenser’s body. With a cry the halfling falls to the ground dead. Chronos’ energy begins gathering around the heroes.

Outside the cave, 40 feet away from the entrance, a party of 12 orcs stands up from the ground. Half of them charge at Damin, while the other half charge Beler’s prone body.

Damin connects with her mace against one of the charging orcs and knocks him to the ground, dead. Beler swings her sword at the oncoming orcs, but they dodge it then surround her. Beler manages to avoid the attacks from the orcs around her, but the ogre clubs Damin from behind as she defends herself from their blows. Falling to the ground, her lifeless body collapses.

One of the orcs surrounding her manages to stab Beler’s shoulder with enough force to knock her to the ground. Rising as a time sprite from her body, she surveys the battlefield and their opponents cheer in victory. Energy gathers slowly, as the paralyzed bodies of Nalda, Hernan and Gevot keep them anchored to the secular reality.

The travelling priest withdraws a bag of coins and throws it out the entrance of the cave. They see the ogre sweep up the coins, heft Damin’s corpse over his shoulder and begin walking back towards one of the caves.

The time sprites increase the flow of energy and travel back in time as the group of orcs approach the paralyzed members of their party, menace in their inhuman visages.


	18. Chapter 18

“Again, you’re just starting to wake up when you hear a knocking at the door.” Gary narrated.

“I cast ‘Sleep’ and put all three bastard’s to sleep!” decides Dave.

“You need to have a clear path to the target whenever you can a spell, so you actually can’t cast it through a closed door,” replied Gary.

“So, this priest is evil and he’s working with the monsters?” asked Anne.

“You don’t know that, but he seemed to stab you in the back during the fight,” explained Gary.

“I have a ‘Detect Evil’ spell, shouldn’t that have warned me about him before he betrayed us?” argued Anne.

“You do have a ‘Detect Evil’ spell, but you’ve never prepared it nor cast it. If you read its description, it’s kind of like ‘Detect Magic’, for a period of time it makes anyone who means you harm to glow in a way that only you can see. Note, it doesn’t let you read their thoughts and it doesn’t NECESSARILY make people with a chaotic alignment glow. It makes people who mean YOU harm glow. An evil priest could cast it and it’d make do-gooders who would harm him glow.”

“So, it works from the spell casters perspective?” asked Margaret.

“Yeah,” agreed Gary.

“Ok, then, Beler opens the door then Nalda and I both cast sleep on them,” decided Dave.

“Sure, you open the door and they’re surprised when you immediately cast a spell on them. Each of you roll 2d8, and… yup, you’ve put all of them to sleep. They collapse to the ground.”

“We kill them all,” Dave said quickly.

“Wait! Still no prisoners?” asked Margaret “It seems like some of them might have some useful information.”

“I don’t want the travelling priest to paralyze us again!” argued Dave.

“How about we kill him and one acolyte, tie up the other one, then wake him up?” suggested Laura as a compromise, which everyone agreed to.

“Ok, you have him tied up but the acolyte refuses to respond to any of your questions. He glares at all of you,” narrated Gary.

“Well, we’ll take you back to the Frontier Fort, but there’s a pretty good chance we’re going to torture you as soon as we get there. So you should prepare yourself for that,” said Dave in character.


	19. Chapter 19

The orcs lay in the underbrush, 40 feet from the cave entrance, prepared for the ambush. Glancing at one another with as little movement as possible, their discipline wars with their thirst for blood as they wait for the trap to be sprung. 

A sudden movement catches their attention immediately as a sack flies out of the mouth of the cave and crunches to the ground with a sound indicating coins. Four breaths pass with nothing else happening, until the ogre perched above the cave entrance losses patience and lowers himself to the gully ground, sweeps up the sack and begins walking back towards his cave. 

In confusion, the orcs look at one another trying to determine what just happened. A group of figures emerge and, acting on instinct, the orcs jump to their feet with a shout. The instant they emerge from hiding, two of the enemy spell casters enchant them and the entire group falls to the ground asleep.

\---

Marching back towards the Frontier Fort, Beler keeps gesturing and talking to the captive orc, trying to make sense of him. Hernan keeps pace with the silent acolyte and loudly brainstorms innovative torture techniques.

The group makes good time after they reach the road back to the fort and their travels pass uneventfully.


	20. Chapter 20

“All I’m asking is whether we’re the bad guys here” said Margaret with a laugh. “We’re committing genocide, we’ve killed children and now we’re gearing up to torture a prisoner. Is this what heroes do?”

“First, we never signed the Geneva convention. Second, we gave the guy a chance to talk, so basically it seems like he wants us to torture him. Third, we’re on a mission from a god, so I think whatever we do is pretty moral from that perspective. Fourth, they’re all going to die when reality ends anyway, so that’s worse than whatever we do to them.”

Laughing, Margaret held her hands up in surrender.

“It is interesting how quickly people adopt an ends justify the means perspective,” mused Laura. “We aren’t even trying other approaches to problems.”

“Last time you tried something else we got mugged by a bunch of kobolds, so I think the kill first ask questions later policy is working pretty well,” argued Dave.

“Would the Frontier Fort torture him if we turned him over to them?” asked Frank. “Maybe they can get the information for us.”

“Ha ha, keep your hands clean by letting someone else do the dirty work?” teased Gary.

“Do we have any spells that would force him to tell the truth or read his mind?” asked Anne.

“That’s a good idea!” acknowledged Gary “Check out your spells lists, there are higher level spells that could help you but nothing you have now I don’t think.”

“Do I learn any of the orc’s language?” asked Margaret.

“Make an intelligence check,” commanded Gary.

“Passed!” Margaret said with excitement, looking at her 20 sided die.

“You learn the basics of HIS orc tribes language. Single word interactions. It won’t help you communicate with other orcs, unless they also know this tribe’s language for some reason.” Gary explained.

“So,” Laura said, starting to change the subject, “apparently I didn’t get the tenure track position that was advertised.”

As a group they registered their disappointment.

“The department told me they wanted me, but the provost made an offer to another candidate. Then when I saw the provost this week she went out of her way to say that she would have liked to hire me but the department wanted someone else. She’s such a liar!”

“I’m no fan of the provost,” Gary prefaced, “but I suppose it’s possible that it’s the department who is lying. Lying is a pretty popular activity around this campus.”

“Especially with the administration!” joked Margaret.

“Does it affect your position now?” asked Frank.

“No, I’ve still got the three year visiting position,” explained Laura. “I’d definitely switch to tenure-track if I could though.”

After a pause where no one seemed to have anything else to add, Gary continued with the game.

“Ok, so you show up back to the gate with the acolyte and a pair of orcs tied up. Sergeant Suzie asks why you’ve taken one of the priest’s acolytes prisoner.”

“The priest turns out to not be such a man of god,” said Margaret in character. “Please summon the captain of the guards so we can explain to him what happened.”

“Her,” corrected Anne.

“Her,” agreed Gary.


	21. Chapter 21

Looking around them, the party feels acutely aware of the functional nature of even their best clothing. Hernan takes two glasses of wine from a passing servant and passes one over to Gevot. Notable people from around the Frontier Fort are gathered for the Castellan’s dinner in the inner fort.

Gevot smiles back, as Sergeant Suzie catches his eye from her post at the entrance to the Castellan’s private quarters. 

Talking to the owner of the loan bank, Yenser asked details about their service offerings for depositing funds and borrowing against items of value.

The Castellan sweeps into the room without announcement and moves directly to greet the captain. Beler quickly notes that, although clearly past her prime, the Castellan moves like a warrior and she suspects that she could still be a dangerous melee opponent.

Appointments in the cursed colony often were made to accomplished women, rather than just for political reasons like in the new world.

After greeting a number of notable guests, the Castellan makes her way towards the party and clears her throat. Raising her glass in the air, she raises her voice and announces, “We’re gathered here tonight to pay our respects to the Blue Company and their valiant work investigating the attacks on caravans along our borders. The Frontier Fort owes them a debt and we all owe them our admiration. Here here!” Taking a deep drink, she drains her glass and the other guests follow her lead.

A servant discreetly trades her empty glass for a full one as the Castellan makes her way to Beler and switches from her public performance to a private one.

“We’re all deeply grieved for you that your efforts cost Lady Grace her life, but well satisfied that you have resolved our issue. None of us suspected that the travelling priest was anything other than what he presented himself as.” the Castellan says to Beler, taking her measure.

“We are likewise grieved and pleased.” responds Beler, choosing her words carefully. “In truth, we ourselves did not suspect the priest until he attacked us in the wilderness.”

“A cowardly act, which was thankfully unsuccessful,” the Castellan agreed. “In truth, I’ve often wondered if perhaps males don’t have the moral fortitude for positions of authority. The churches will, of course, administer themselves, but I’m quite pleased that our spiritual leader has the correct moral center that comes more naturally to women. We’ve been quite curious about your unusual party mixture. Not just including men, but having a number of non-humans. Have you found their performance to be acceptable?”

“I don’t agree that males and non-humans are in any way morally deficient,” responds Beler hotly, she flushed with anger as she continued. “Hernan, Gevot and Yenser are brave companions I would gladly lay my life down for!”.

Nearby conversation dies down as party goers realize that a notable exchange was occurring. The silence stretches for many heartbeats as the Castellan studies Beler.

“Well, as I said you have our gratitude. These new philosophies coming out of the new world are always fascinating, but of limited utility for those of us taming the wilderness. Please enjoy your dinner,” the Castellan responded coldly.

With a nod of her head to the party, she departs back to her private chambers. After her exit, the Captain announces that dinner would now be served and suggests the guests make their way to the dining room. 

Moving next to Beler, she observes, “that could have gone better.”

\---

Back at the inn, the party discusses the evening events in their room. “So, the captain told me they’d be sending payment to the Blue Company and an acknowledgement that we’ve completed our contract. She said that they would be deeply appreciative if we could clear out the remainder of the caves. She’s said that we can keep any treasure we find for ourselves, and that they’ll provide two corporals and six guards to help us if we need them.”

Talking late into the night, the party debates what their next move should be.


	22. Chapter 22

“So, I don’t get it, do we have to go back to the monster condos or not?” Anne asked.

“I think it’s our choice,” said Margaret.

“Yeah,” agreed Dave. “We can either go back and keep clearing it out, or do any of the other things we discussed last time we were deciding what to do.”

“But, what are we SUPPOSED to do?” Anne asked Gary.

“It’s kind of a debate in role playing circles. They call it ‘railroading’ when the person running the game has a set story they want to tell and you get pushed along that story no matter what you try to do. It’s generally looked down upon as not a particularly fun way to play for the players, since they don’t have much agency.” Gary began, launching into a lecture on role playing games.

“The opposite end of the spectrum would be a sandbox game, where the world is responsive to the players’ decisions and they can do anything they want and the person running the game tries to respond to that.”

“Most games are somewhere on the spectrum between the two. There’s a bit of a philosophical dispute about whether people running the game should ever fudge rolls - roll for something then change the result for the story. To save a player from dying or to prolong a fight with the big boss. I don’t fudge rolls and I hate my players to feel like they’re being railroaded, so I’m certainly more on the sandbox end of things. The entire idea that you’ve been given a mandate to save the world ISN’T typical of a sandbox game. However, if all of you just decided to abandon that and go do something else, such as trying to escape to a different dimension and leave this world to it’s fate or something, that would be fine - I’d just let the game proceed in that direction.”

“So we don’t have to go back to the cave?” Anne clarified.

“Nope, you’re choice,” Gary responded. “One issue with sandbox games is that while railroading sets up each challenge to test the characters, but to be surmountable, sandbox games aren’t like this. Basically the world is how the world is, and it’s up to you to deal with it appropriately. Say you found a way to get to Venma’s headquarters and headed there now. In a railroading game, the person running the game would be either preventing the party from getting there or would put some mechanisms in place to let you win. In a sandbox style game, the view would be that it’s foolish to head into such a powerful enemy’s headquarters without preparation and it would probably kill the whole party.”

“So we can go back to the caves if we think that’s a wise decision, or any of the other things if we think that’d be better?” she further clarified.

“Exactly,” Gary confirmed.

“We could go back to the caves or we can go to Hope and talk to the sages and priests there,” Dave began iterating their options. “Or we could go through Hope and sail back to the new world.” 

“Or go visit the non-human settlements,” Laura chimed in.

“There are other forts like the Frontier Fort we could go visit I guess,” Kate said, thinking about other options. “Or we could go hunting in the wilderness around.”

“In terms of the wilderness, you’re all aware that it gets progressively dangerous the further away from settlements you get. If you just decided to head towards the heart of the cursed colony travelling through the wilds, that would be viewed as a committing suicide by most people,” Gary interjected. “Of course, you’re welcome to do that if that’s what you want.”

“We could talk to the captain and see if she has anything else she needs done,” mused Margaret.

“I still don’t get what Blue Company would expect us to be doing,” said Anne.

“Well, you’ve accomplished what they sent you to do. They’d probably expect you to keep adventuring and taking on commissions,” explained Gary. “They might have wanted you to write and update them about Lady Grace…”

“Ooh, we should have done that!” interrupted Margaret. “Maybe we should have told her family too.”

“Maybe,” agreed Gary. “They’d just want you to bring back a big haul of treasure and magic when you return to the new world. They’d then take most of it from you and that would resolve your contract with them.”

“I feel like we’re making good progress on the caves. I think we should probably go back and finish them off,” suggested Dave. “We’ve been getting good experience and treasure from it, we can handle the monsters there and it seems like we’re likely to find things to help us with whatever else we end up doing. Also, it’ll be more efficient if we bring everything in one go down to Hope and get it all identified and what not.”

“Yeah,” agreed Frank. “Taking it all in one go sounds good to me.”

“Also, I’d like to leave the Frontier Fort with everything cleaned up. Right now there’s still that ogre that might cause them trouble,” added Margaret.

Laura, Kate and Anne nodded their agreement.

“Ok, you talk to the captain and she’s happy that you’re going to keep working on the caves. She offers to let a corporal and three archers from the guards join you. She’s apologetic, but says that’s all the Castellan will let her spare,” Gary described.

“Because I pissed her off?” asked Margaret.

“Because you pissed her off,” agreed Gary.


	23. Chapter 23

Moving through the wilderness, divine energy crackles between the party as the time sprites further discuss their plans to move forward with their adventures and plans against Venma. The mortals they inhabited each feel satisfaction at the challenges they have overcome and their liberation of the Frontier Fort over the dangers threatening it and allow safe travel once again for the people of the region.

Moving along the road, the group instinctively adopts a formation, protecting the magic user and keeping alert to any dangers. They head northeast back towards the caves that have offered so many challenges already.

How will the time sprites move against Venma and save reality?

Will the heroes make it back to Hope?

Is Dave ever going to get new RAM for his workstation?

Book 2 will be coming soon!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come to https://www.johnchampaign.com and sign up to my mailing list to be notified when it’s posted! Get a free short story when you sign up. I may not be posting the second part to this site, so sign up to be sure you find out when it launches.
> 
> Character List  
> Frank plays Gevot the thief  
> Anne plays Damin the cleric  
> Kate plays Nalda the magic user  
> Dave plays Hernan the elf  
> Laura plays Yenser the halfling  
> Margaret plays Beler the fighter  
> Gary is the dungeon master
> 
> Message to the Reader
> 
> Thank you for reading my first book! As an indie author, one of the hardest things to match is the high level of proofreading that publishers offer. My abject apologies for the (inevitable) typos, misspellings or grammatical issues that you might find in this book. Believe it or not, I’ve proofread this myself repeatedly and had a number of other readers go through it. Remaining errors become increasingly difficult to spot. If you find something, please let me know at john.champaign@gmail.com and I’ll make sure to get it fixed for future readers.
> 
> At the same e-mail address, I’m very open to any feedback, questions or ideas.
> 
> If you feel some gratitude after completing this book, the greatest gift you could give me would be to read something else I’ve written, which will hopefully be coming in the near future. Beyond this, letting any other readers you know who you think would dig this would be greatly appreciated. If you still want to do more (hey, I really like you!), a good rating and / or review on Amazon or Goodreads would be helpful. One of the hardest things for a new author is trying to connect with readers who would enjoy their work.
> 
> I’m not trying to write to a mass market. My target reader is someone like myself and my close friends. Whoever you are and wherever you’re reading this, I’m glad we’ve been able to connect in this (limited) way.


End file.
